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Assault on the Tree of Souls
The Assault on the Tree of Souls is the culminating battle in the struggle between the Resources Development Administration (RDA), and the Na'vi tribes on Pandora. It occurred on August 22, 2154 and was an attempt by RDA Security Operations, led by Miles Quaritch, to destroy the Tree of Souls in response to the recruitment drive of the sixth Toruk Makto, Jake Sully, who had in a matter of days gathered over 2,000 Na'vi warriors from fifteen different tribes to fight the RDA. Though the RDA routed the Na'vi forces, the unexpected intervention of Pandora's vicious wildlife quickly turned the tide against them and they were overwhelmed, forcing the survivors to retreat to Hell's Gate. The Na'vi quickly regained their strength and pursued them there, forcing the withdrawal of all remaining RDA personnel from Pandora. Lead-up to the battle Following his failed attempt to prevent the destruction of Hometree, Jake Sully, with the assistance of Trudy Chacon, escaped from Hell's Gate along with Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman. After making Tsahaylu with a Great Leonopteryx and thus becoming the sixth Toruk Makto, Sully had regained the trust of the homeless Omaticaya Clan, which had taken refuge at the Tree of Souls. He asked them if they could save Grace, who was dying from her wounds. The Omaticaya people attempt to do a conscious transfer on Grace, but she succumbed to her wounds and died. However, before she died, she told Jake that she was with Eywa. Grace's death enraged Jake, who got the Omaticaya people 'fired up' with bloodlust, and sent them to summon more warriors to wage war on the RDA. Within days he had amassed a force of over 2000 Na'vi warriors - this did not go unnoticed, as RDA satellites noted the activity with growing concern. Colenel Miles Quaritch quickly devised a pre-emptive strike to eliminate Jake and deter the Na'vi from open resistance. This plan involved rigging a Valkyrie shuttle with improvised daisy cutters made from pallets of mining explosives, to be dropped on the Tree of Souls. This awesome demonstration of the RDA's power and the crushing defeat they would inflict on the Na'vi would dissuade the aliens from further resistance. The night before the battle, Jake approached the Tree of Souls to ask Eywa for her help in defeating the RDA, pleading with her to examine Grace's memories of urbanized Earth, but was told by Neytiri that Eywa only assists in the balance of life on Pandora and was unlikely to intervene. Warned of Quaritch's plans by Dr. Max Patel, Sully prepared to ambush the RDA airfleet; the magnetic vortexes of the Hallelujah Mountains rendered scanning and auto-targeting ineffective in addition to the dangers of operating in an unfamiliar environment. However, it it appeared that during the battle, the RDA forces faired well despite being in a disadvantage, easily mopping down countless Na'vi warriors in the air through raw firepower. The Battle Quaritch's air fleet arrived near the Tree of Souls in the early morning, centered around a Valkyrie shuttle loaded with improvised bombs for in-flight deployment and machine gun emplacements on the loading ramp and roof. Escorting the vulnerable shuttle were dozens of Samson transports with gunners and Scorpion gunships and a Dragon Assault Ship, from which Quaritch oversaw the battle. Jake Sully, riding his Toruk, commanded the Na'vi forces, which waited until the RDA fleet came within four klicks (4 km) of the Tree of Souls and deployed its ground forces (over a dozen AMP suits deployed from the Dragon Assault Ship and the Valkyrie while hundreds of infantrymen were deployed off the Samsons and the shuttle), before advancing. The Na'vi attacked both - Ikran Riders, lying in wait on the face of several floating mountains, took the fleet by surprise while hundreds of direhorse riders mounted a frontal charge of the RDA ground forces (which caught the direhorse force by radar first), Norm Spellman's Avatar riding alongside them while the RDA infantry and AMP suits formed a firing line, waiting until the Na'vi direhorses were in appropriate firing range. Despite some initial success in destroying several RDA aircraft - primarily due to the element of surprise - the Na'vi forces quickly succumbed to the SecOps's superior firepower. The direhorse riders were cut down and routed by small arms fire with little loss as well as the heavy support from AMP suits and were broken and pursued by Scorpion gunships providing air support, forcing them on the run. Norm's avatar was also killed during the chaotic retreat. While more successful, the Ikran riders were likewise exterminated; the RDA Scorpion gunships, despite being put at a disadvantage thanks to the flux vortex, were still well-trained in pursuing the Na'vi warriors and mowing them down with machine guns and rockets while Samson units provided acted as hovering gun platforms, where SecOps troops poured heavy gunfire upon the Ikran riders as well as any attempting to get too close. Tsu'Tey made a valiant effort to disable the Valkyrie shuttle, boarding it and butchering several soldiers before being shot and sent falling to the canopy below. The Na'vi also found it difficult to assault the shuttle, which the machine gun emplacements fought back furiously along with a determined Scorpion and Samson escort attached. Sully was targeted by Quaritch's Dragon Assault Ship, saved only by the actions of Trudy Chacon, who drew its fire in her Samson. Her transport helicopter was no match for the military-grade assault ship, however, and after a short game of cat-and-mouse it was destroyed after Chacon reported her status to Sully and apologized for not being able to do more. Trudy was then killed in the blast when the Dragon launched a last missile to finish her off. Neytiri was also forced to land on the ground when after pursued by a Samson, an AMP suit shot her Ikran down, right at the midst of the RDA advance. Eywa Intervenes As the battle turned against the Na'vi, Quaritch ordered the Valkyrie to proceed with its bombing run. Norm Spellman was forced to return to his human body after his avatar was fatally injured. After recovering from the shock of nearly dying, he left the relay module and set off into the jungle to rejoin the battle. Neytiri was forced by a Samson to fly down into the jungle, where Lyle Wainfleet shot down her Ikran, killing it. Surrounded by advancing RDA troops, Neytiri prepared to make her final stand, though Jake, flying high above, begged her not to. Seconds before she was about to open fire, the ground began shaking as Wainfleet, detecting large movement ahead of him, ordered the RDA ground forces to halt. He and his men were caught off-guard by a herd of Hammerhead Titanothere charging directly at their lines. Firing in futility at the creatures's immensely thick frontal armor, Wainfleet and the other AMP operators were wiped out. The surviving human troops were routed, many of them pursued and torn apart by Viperwolves. Neytiri realized that Eywa had heard Jake's prayer at the Tree of Souls and had summoned the creatures to destroy the RDA. A lone Thanator emerged, startling her, but did not attack her, and instead offered itself to her as a mount. Simultaneously, the RDA air fleet was overwhelmed by thousands of Ikran, which destroyed most of the escorts and forced the survivors to flee. Some RDA aircraft were boarded by Ikran, causing the surviving troops to panic. An embittered Quaritch ordered the Valkyrie shuttle to press the target, hoping to still destroy the Tree of Souls despite the horrific losses. As the shuttle prepared to start its bombing run, it was boarded by Jake Sully who mowed down the crew of a machine-gun nest and threw a grenade into one of the air intakes, before leaping back onto the Toruk, destroying an engine and sending the shuttle into a nosedive into the ground, where its unloaded cargo detonated. After destroying the Valkyrie, Sully attempted to destroy Quaritch's Dragon using the same tactic. However, Quaritch spotted Sully and his riderless Toruk, pulling the pilot's yoke to the side and knocking Sully off balance, causing the grenades to miss their target. One grenade bounced off, but the other snagged and detonated on the hull, causing damage and exposing the crew to the toxic atmosphere. Sully, left hanging off a missile launcher, removed a missile from its rack, preparing to throw it into a rotor. Quaritch spotted him and blew an escape hatch to shoot him off with his sidearm, but was too slow to save the ship, shooting at the avatar after he threw it. Sully fell into the jungle, giant leaves breaking his fall, as the out-of-control Dragon floundered and spun groundwards. Quaritch, with his shoulder on fire, quickly entered his AMP and jumped out moments before its unused ordinance detonated in the fires, the wreckage landing behind him on the jungle floor. Jake & Neytiri vs. Quaritch An enraged Quaritch searched the jungle, eventually finding the module containing Jake's human body. As he prepared to destroy it, Neytiri, riding the Thanator, attacked him. They struggled, and though Quaritch's primary weapon was destroyed, he managed to kill the Thanator with his AMP's combat knife, trapping Neytiri underneath it. Jake intervened as he was just about to kill her, and the two struggled further, with Jake using the AMP's rifle bayonet to deflect Quaritch's blows, eventually disarming him altogether. He shattered the AMP's visor with the bayonet, forcing Quaritch to eject it and use an exopack. Quaritch taunted Sully, and, with no weapons remaining, attacked the relay module, destroying Norm Spellman's vacant link unit and exposing Jake to the deadly Pandoran atmosphere. Jake attacked Quaritch with his knife, nearly killing him, but collapsed as his human body began to suffocate. Quaritch then picked Jake up with his AMP and prepared to kill him with his own knife, but was shot twice with poisoned arrows by Neytiri, killing him. Sully exited his Avatar, desperately reaching for an Exopack, but lost consciousness before he could equip it. He was saved by Neytiri, who deduced that Jake's human form was inside the relay module. She found him lying down unconscious and put the Exopack he had failed to reach for on his face. Jake began to regain consciousness and fully activated the Exopack. Neytiri saw that he was alive and Jake said the traditional Na'vi greeting "I See you". Neytiri began to cry and said the same. This added completely new meaning as this is the first time she saw him in his much weaker human form. Aftermath Following the overwhelming defeat of the RDA forces, the Hell's Gate facility, now lacking mobile defense forces, was overrun by the triumphant Na'vi. The natives, under Jake Sully's supervision, forced the humans to leave the planet on the remaining Valkyrie shuttle, which presumably ferried them to the ISV Venture Star, which would then take them back to Earth. A few humans, including Norm Spellman and Dr. Max Patel, were allowed to remain on Pandora, and Jake Sully, feeling that Toruk Makto was no longer needed, released his Toruk before returning to the Tree of Souls, where he successfully transferred his consciousness into his Avatar body permanently. Gallery File:Mechs.jpg|AMP Suits being offloaded from Quaritch's Dragon. File:Battlion.jpg|RDA ground forces open fire on Na'vis on Direhorses. File:Shootingchoppers.jpg|Trudy's Samson confronting Quaritch's Dragon. File:Aerial-battle.jpg|Banshees sent by Ewya help repel the air forces. File:Pandora-monster.jpg|Neytiri riding a Thanator to attack Quaritch's AMP Suit. de:Schlacht um den Baum der Seelen Category:Events Category:Avatar